TGI Blog

Having a few days pass since Tiger Wood’s competitive comeback at the Hero World Challenge, a few comments seem appropriate.

First a little critique of the telecast. Those looking to break into broadcasting should listen to the gushing commentary by some of the Golf Channel and NBC personalities as an object lesson of what not to do. At time it sounded as if the Hero was a major championship rather than a silly season affair with marginally more significance than your Saturday morning four ball.

Clearly the PGA Tour has a bevy of fine young talent. Each week a player emerges in form and dazzles the fans. Yet heading into the Hero World Challenge, an 18-player event in the Bahamas, the buzz was all about one Eldrick “Tiger” Woods. Remember him?

If Tiger Woods had any notion of easing back into the spotlight with his comeback at the Hero World Challenge, his friends aren’t doing him any favors. Not that the spotlight doesn’t immediately pivot to Woods anytime he says he’s teeing it up somewhere – even more so considering he’s logged just seven tournament rounds in the past 27 months. The curiosity factor doesn’t diminish.

There is a fairly clear consensus – better to take some fall points into the break.

“We feel an obligation to play certain events in the fall now,” said Brandt Snedeker. “You feel like you’ve got to get out and get (points), because you don’t want to be starting January 1st too far behind.”

Five years after the introduction of the PGA Tour’s wraparound schedule, it’s hard to find anyone not trying to pick up a few points in the fall. Even those at the top of the food chain.

Lewine Mair in a recent Global Golf Post wrote about today’s political correctness and how it has led to a hyper-awareness of sexual harassment. Indeed, the issue has been in the news quite a bit lately. According to European teaching pro Ron Cowan, who was quoted in Mair’s article, he fears that sometime in the future a female student could come back and say he “touched her hips inappropriately, or something like that.” That’s why he doesn’t book female students.

C’mon. Get a grip. The golf industry has a much bigger issues in the domain of sexual harassment than what happens with a teaching pro out on the practice range with a student.

Johnson now stands as the seventh player in PGA Tour annals to take a six-stroke lead into a final round and walk away empty-handed. Of those, Greg Norman is in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Three more are fellow major champions – Hal Sutton, Gay Brewer and Sergio Garcia.

So DJ has that going for him. Not that anyone would ever desire to be on that list, but it’s another good illustration of how this game can take anyone down a peg on a given day.

Justin Thomas had never been involved in one, win or lose, since graduating to the PGA Tour after his lone Web.com Tour season. On a wind-whipped day on the other side of the globe, though, Thomas extended his magical 2017 a bit longer by outlasting Marc Leishman at The CJ Cup at Nine Bridges.

Two extra holes gave the 24-year-old Kentucky native his fifth win of 2017 and third since his major breakthrough at the PGA Championship. Factor in the U.S. romp at the Presidents Cup, and it’s been a brilliant fall. He’s now up to No.3 in the latest world rankings.

“Whilst delighted for all the players, it’s quite sad to see The Old Course of St Andrews brought to her knees by today’s ball & equipment,” October 8, 2017 nine time major champion, Gary Player.

Player was an intense competitor, intelligent and perceptive with tremendous stature in the game but unfortunately the opinion expressed in this tweet ignores the reality of golf today. But in case your attention at the time was otherwise occupied, here’s a bit of background.

Hey, he’s 47 now, and age catches up with even the great ones. Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan scored their last PGA Tour wins at age 46. Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Billy Casper, Greg Norman Ernie Els – their winning days ended earlier than that.

Mickelson assures us there’s at least one more left in him. After his form of the past six weeks, it might even be soon.

ATLANTA – Flash back to October, and Justin Thomas opened his PGA Tour season with a 75 that included a pair of triple bogeys on his back nine.

“It’s looking like I’m going to miss the cut,” he recalled, “and I end up shooting 66 to make the cut on the number.”

It kept getting better after that, too. A 66-67 weekend in Napa lifted Thomas all the way to a share of eighth, he successfully defended his title in Malaysia a week later and sprinted off the line when the calendar turned by sweeping the Hawaiian double – shooting 59 at the Sony Open.

A major championship and FedExCup playoff victory would eventually follow. And though the season’s final round ended in the same manner as the first – walking off the 18th green muttering to himself – Thomas left no doubt he is now among the very elite.

Three years ago, a back-nine blunder cost Billy Horschel the second leg of the FedExCup playoffs. Undeterred, the former Florida standout won the BMW Championship a week later and stayed hot to become the most unlikely winner yet of the PGA Tour’s season-ending bonus.

You might remember the final scene, where Horschel goaded a Georgia crowd by doing the Gator Chomp on East Lake’s 18th green.

Fast forward to this month. Having coughed up a back-nine lead at TPC Boston, Marc Leishman ran away from the BMW Championship field to rewrite that longstanding event’s scoring record. And with a win at East Lake…

Had this been a typical midsummer PGA Tour event, Sergio Garcia might have taken the quick penalty, the likely bogey, and been content with a top-20 finish.

But the BMW Championship isn’t the usual midsummer fare. And though the green jacket now in Garcia’s possession guarantees a lifetime pass to Augusta, he had another Georgia trip on his mind as he stared at his ball sitting up in a small brook next to Conway Farms’ 18th green.

Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson will be front and center, as is the privilege of their rank.

More importantly, they’ll be front and center next week, when the keys to the $10 million FedExCup winner’s vault are dangling at the finish line. We already know they won’t need any help claiming the spoils with a win, except maybe to hire someone to load the Brinks truck.

When Stacy Lewis pledged last week to donate whatever her winnings might be from the LPGA’s Cambia Portland Classic to hurricane relief in Houston, golf fans overwhelmingly nodded and smiled.

Go for it, girl. Do your hometown proud.

Hey, a top-10 finish would contribute $25,000 or so to the effort. That’s a lot of food and clothing for those facing a long rebuilding effort. Maybe a good week could find Lewis inside the top five, which would double the funding.

A win? Geez, nobody writes those scripts. Not to mention Lewis hadn’t won in three years. No need to create that kind of pressure.

For the past ten years, the PGA Tour has been working diligently to give us an exciting conclusion to the season using the four tournaments in five weeks slog called the FedEx Cup playoffs. While doing so, the tour has hoped to keep our attention, even though it’s opposite the start of football season (also a slog, but that’s another column).

How often have we heard that the quality of a golf course can be determined by the champions it produces?

Royal Birkdale, for instance, has produced a half-dozen winners now in the World Golf Hall of Fame (and two who will get there eventually). Over more than two decades, all but three winners at Firestone Country Club also have a major title in their portfolios.

Of course, it would have been amazing if Jordan Spieth had managed to complete the career Grand Slam at Quail Hollow Club. But Justin Thomas capturing his first major championship is a pretty strong alternative.

A very good thing, even.

Now it doesn’t fall solely on Spieth to carry the torch for this generation of American young guns. It probably was just a matter of time before Thomas joined that roster of major champions, but this removes any doubt.

We witnessed three more first-time major champions this year--Sergio Garcia, at long last; Brooks Koepka, who plays like the next Dustin Johnson; and Justin Thomas, who didn’t wait long to start fulfilling his own great expectations.

We saw one of the craziest finishes in years--think Jean Van de Veldebut with a win. It featured Jordan Spieth intentionally taking a penalty drop on Royal Birkdale’s practice range and a subsequent birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie stretch that will be a topic of conversation for decades.

Perhaps most importantly, we saw three players capture majors who are likely to take many more.

This year has been rather sublime in terms of how the major championships played out. Sergio Garcia finally removed the 200-pound necklace known as Best Player to Not Win a Major with his decisive victory at Augusta. Brooks Koepka demonstrated remarkable power and poise at the daunting Erin Hills course for the U.S. Open title. Then Jordan Spieth turned tragedy into triumph in a magical six-hole run to close out The Open.

Feel-good stories, all of them. Which is to say, the Golf Gods have been rather benign in terms of dishing out bad breaks, horrible bounces and spirit-wrecking outcomes. I feel it coming like a thunderstorm sweeping across the plains.

Okay. But some wines just don’t make the cut, no matter how old or experienced they are.

Professional golfers are the same way. They can be smarter, know the game better, have an uncanny ability to get into the hole from anywhere. But at some point, even those fine players lose some of their skills or desire.

Then there is Bernhard Langer. Like those fine wines that get better with age, Langer just several weeks shy of his 60th birthday has shown little indication that he’s ready to hang up his spikes.

And so now Venezuela appears twice as frequently among the past century of winners at Canada’s national Open as anyone from the motherland.

Roll that one around for a bit.

Granted, both RBC Canadian Open wins belong to Jhonattan Vegas, whose playoff victory Sunday over Charley Hoffman made him just the third man to capture back-to-back Open titles since the end of World War II.

Kudos to RBC, a major Canadian corporation, for ensuring that Canadian golf fans have somewhat of a classy field for the National Championship.

Although the buzz around the world last week was Jordan Spieth and his topsy-turvey route to his 3rd major at The Open, a great many Canadian eyeballs were glued to the young man who, after Saturday’s round, was sitting 3rd in a very high profile field.

Austin Connelly is the name of the young Canadian with the Texas twang that sat behind Spieth and Matt Kucher.

What happened was Jordan Spieth and one of the most bizarre final rounds of major championship golf ever played.

In the CliffNotes version of this Open Championship, Spieth, who had started the final round with a three-shot lead over Matt Kuchar, won the Claret Jug by that same margin over Kuchar to become the “champion golfer of the year.”

Royal Birkdale has a heck of a resume. You can judge a major championship venue by its winners and Birkdale’s champions have been impressive.

Try Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson and Peter Thomson for starters but don’t forget Padraig Harrington, Mark O’Meara and Ian Baker-Finch. Plus there’s the Nearly Men at Birkdale, those players who almost won the Open. Miller outlasted a 19-year-old named Seve Ballesteros, who tied Jack Nicklaus for second in 1976; 17-year-old Justin Rose, an amateur, holed out from the rough at the 18th hole in 1998 and finished fourth; and Hale Irwin whiffed a two-inch putt to finish one shot behind Watson in 1983.

In control of the Constellation Senior Players Championship at Caves Valley through three rounds, Langer’s game was on cruise control through the final round of his attempts at a four-peat in the event. Langer had won the last three Senior Players Championship on three different courses. Unfortunately, Cave’s Valley proved to be a tough test for a fourth straight win.

Journalists for eons have been reviled. It’s part of the job. Many who object to the “politicization” of the questions to participants prior to this week’s U.S. Women’s Open seem to think that sports exist in a bubble.

A look back in our nation's history shows politics deeply embedded in sports. The treatment of Jim Thorpe called into question our nation’s history with Native Americans. Jesse Owens couldn’t sit in some restaurants, was spit upon by Nazis in 1936 Berlin and yet came home a hero. Jackie Robinson’s introduction into Major League Baseball signified a significant shift in racial issues in the U.S. I could go on from Muhammed Ali to Colin Kaepernick.

By Mike Jamison, Executive Director of the International Network of Golf (ING)

If you’re not playing golf with clubs fitted specifically for your swing and body characteristics, then you’re giving up strokes to your opponents.

I learned this lesson recently in a way that has changed my entire outlook on golf. I had slipped into a funk that was turning my weekly Saturday morning trip to the golf course into something more akin to a visit to the dentist chair. Only worse. At least in the dentist chair you get a shot of Novocain and a promise that all will be better.

There was rain in the forecast a year ago in West Virginia, but nobody expected the severity of the storm.

The storms devastated the area, ravaging homes, businesses and upending lives. Homes were captured floating down rivers in what was called a 1000-year storm. Streams overflowed, roads were turned into raging rivers, storm waters spread like a virus and destroyed everything in their path. Topping the disaster was a tornado.

The storm was clearly catastrophic.

Along the way, and merely a footnote to the storm losses, was the cancellation of the 2016 Greenbrier Classic, the PGA Tour event that generates millions of dollars of much needed economic value to the area.

Partnerships like that of Phil Mickelson, five-time major winner, and Jim “Bones” MacKay are very rare. Pros and caddies can be a volatile mix, but to see one last for a long time – 25 years is an eon on the PGA Tour – serves as the foundation of one’s belief in long-term friendships, a “Bromance on Grass,” if you will. Don’t feel sorry for anyone, because Mickelson has hauled in more than $70 million in his career, and MacKay has been paid a good chunk of that.

The KPMG leaderboard will be jam packed with major talent and personalities. As this season has proven so far, the plethora of youngsters on tour are capable of challenging any of the veteran players. Any one of the players from the previously mentioned World Rankings could hoist the trophy come Sunday. Throw into the mix Cristie Kerr, Michelle Wie, Anna Nordqvist, Suzann Pettersen and Stacy Lewis and the second LPGA major of the year will be Must See TV for golf fans worldwide.

For three days, it was the No Fear Open, sponsored by the USGA. On Saturday, the traditionally clichéd “moving day” so popular in golf writers’ third-round reports of the U.S. Open, 32 “moved” below par – a record for a tournament born and bred to bring Tour pros to slamming clubs and X-rated exclamations.

There is a special significance to Saturday play in a typical PGA Tour event.

“It’s moving day,” said one of golf’s elder statesmen at the recent media day of the Tour’s Greenbrier Classic, Lee Trevino. “Saturday starts the final 36 holes. It’s after the cut. And it’s the time to post a strong round and make a statement that you are in the event to win it.”

In an effort to find yet another way to promote putter sales, golf club manufacturers occasionally try to wow their customers with tales of amazing face inserts that have the ability to create instant ball roll for better direction and distance accuracy. They make what sounds like a variety of grooves and textures that they claim will get the ball to roll instantly without skidding or hopping. Considering the limitations the USGA has in place concerning this club design feature, they sure sound like they have another "new idea" designed more for sales than for performance..

Just when many were questioning if Kevin Kisner could shake his bridesmaid role, he turned the trick on Sunday, holing a five-footer for a par on the 18th green at the Colonial County Club to win the Dean and DeLuca Invitational.

Coming into the AT&T Byron Nelson, Billy Horschel didn’t seem likely to end up as the winner. He had missed the cut in his last four events and had missed the cut in his only two previous trips to Irving to play the TPC Four Seasons course.

However, he led the field in strokes saved putting and ended up with the title when Jason Day missed a four-footer on the first playoff hole after the pair had tied at minus 12.

Ratings were down from previous years, and most people are saying it was the contenders at the end. While that is likely part of the reason, it might just as easily be that the course was a little too severely set up for any human, much less guys who hit the ball 325 yards without breaking a sweat.

So I’ll just go ahead and say it. The Players has a great field. TPC Sawgrass is not a great course. It’s iconic, it’s memorable, it’s spectacular in places and spectacularly difficult. But it’s not a great course because the PGA Tour tries too hard to defend par.

Dustin Johnson heads to TPC Sawgrass for this week’s Players Championship as the heavy favorite. And why not? He is averaging 315 off the tee and hitting three out of four greens. Forget the 50-percent fairway stat because much of the time he’s hitting short irons and wedges into the greens, thus the rough has less influence on his control.

Not Moving Day, the cliché phrase used by hack golf writers to describe a golf tournament’s third round. I mean Moving Day as in the day The Players Championship moves from its dud May date back to its original slot in late March two weeks before the Masters.

There have been a few changes to the course this year for The Players, but the only one that counts is the redo of the 12th hole, a par four that was theoretically drivable. But because the green was obscured from the tee, hidden behind some mounds on the left, few tried even though the length was reachable.

In the past, the 12th was a short, dogleg left with a couple pot bunkers close to the green. Now, it’s straightaway, like they just walked about 30 yards right and dropped it into the fairway. So the hole is a little bit shorter. The green is now elongated, offering a variety of distances, depending on pin placement.

The PGA Tour returns to the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course for THE PLAYERS and competitors will have the opportunity to challenge the famous (or is it infamous?) par-3 17th island green. Apt descriptions of the Pete Dye design include long, fairly tight, lots of water and challenging greens.

Predicting a winner for THE PLAYERS has always been an interesting exercise as it has the strongest field of the year and this time 48 of the world’s top 50 will be there.

In the past there have been a number of times I have been critical of golf’s rules givers, the United States Golf Association and R&A, but today they deserve an old-fashioned “attaboy.”

The reason is they promptly came up with a fix to what many viewed as a ludicrous situation, namely the four stroke penalty given to Lexi Thompson during the ANA Inspiration. The USGA and R&A modified the Rules of Golf to address an obviously inherent unfairness.

Upon arriving at the first tee, who is about to tee off but Sammy Snead, knock me over with a feather. A small town boy, recently removed from the comfort of his high school years and now thrown into the big city and the first person I watch hit a golf ball is one of the all time greats, special. There I was, me and possibly 8 others watching Slam-in Sammy Snead. You ask "can it get any better", the answer is yes. No marshals, no ropes, no press, just me 8 others and two other players and their caddies. Three and half hours later the players were exchanging pleasantries on the 18 green.

Thank goodness, the USGA and the R&A didn’t waste time announcing a change to their “video evidence” rulings. The new rule states that a player will not be penalized when video evidence reveals things that could not reasonably be seen with the naked eye. The rule adjustment places more emphasis on player integrity, asking players to make a reasonable judgement about the marking of a ball on the green or over the correct place to drop a ball.

Kevin Chappell finally got a monkey off his back when he rolled in a nine-foot putt on the final green at TPC San Antonio to win the Valero Texas Open. It was his first win on the PGA Tour after 180 starts and will allow him to silence questions about when he’s going to get his hands on a championship trophy.

This is the time of year when storied Augusta National winds down its activities and prepares to close, as it does annually, for the summer months. The club will go dark until late September, and yet this week would be the perfect time for The Women’s Masters.

With the PGA Tour season at the halfway mark it’s fun to speculate who has been the standout performer, if indeed there has been one, so far through the RBC Heritage. It was the 23rd event on the Tour schedule out of 47 (counting the opposite field events such as the Puerto Rico Open played the same week as the WGC-Dell Match Play).

If there ever was a golf Cinderella story, it simply must be the assent of Wesley Bryan to PGA Tour Champion.

The South Carolina native has been a media darling for years, competing in the golf reality show Big Break and entertaining with his brother George with their trick shots on You Tube. The Bryan Brothers videos have been viewed by nearly 10 million people on the latter, where their “Rapid Fire” and “Range Picker Shots” are legend.

Tommy’s Honour debuts in American theaters April 14th in 32 cities. The film is a must see for see for any movie-goer who enjoys period pieces, historical dramas, romance, and authentic “no frills” film-making. It is a testament to both the complex ties and love between father and son, and to how period dramas do not need to compromise authenticity to gain entertainment points. “Tommy’s Honour” is the most authentic golf film ever made because of one simple fact: it is not a golf film at all. See it for yourself and uncover the modern origins of this founding family like never before.

Over my 40 years of teaching, it never ceases to amaze me how players will spend hours on the range and very few minutes on the putting green. Ben Hogan, when once asked, why he didn't spend as much time practicing putting as he did hitting balls, responded, "Anyone can make a ten foot putt.” His point - he was such an incredible ball striker that most of his shots to the pin were 10 feet or less. Unfortunately, we aren't all as gifted as Mr. Hogan.

Throughout Sergio’s career it is clear that he has held high beliefs in his abilities, being able to exercise both powerful and delicate shots with success. In essence his high competence allows him to maintain a high belief in what he is capable of doing. In contrast, the beginning sections of his career are riddled with occasions of success and struggle. Most of this inconsistency coming from the lack of stability in emotions which can stem into frustrations.

Looking over the list of Masters champions begs the question, Is winning a stepping stone to lasting recognition in the golf world?

Here’s a different perspective on the same issue: The final hours of the 2016 Masters had all of us bemoaning two shots that found Rae’s Creek. Avid golf fans still talk about it a year later. Two mis-played tee shots to the par-3 12th indeed added to the historic drama that makes the Masters – especially on the back nine on Sunday – must-watch TV.

I called into Major League Baseball offices and let them know a ball called in yesterday's Washington National’s game was actually a strike.

To my surprise, MLB didn't change the call.

Interestingly enough, a wrong call was made on for holding in the Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers hockey game over the weekend on a play which led to a goal. I e-mailed the National Hockey League offices and let them know, but they too didn't change the call.

But some yahoo calls or writes the LPGA Tour and drops a dime on Lexi Thompson in the ANA Inspiration and before you can say “bingo” the LPGA penalized the tournament leader and ultimately cost her $154,509 in prize winnings as well as a championship.

It made my day, when I saw that David Feherty would feature an interview with Phil "the thrill" Mickelson. Not for one, but two hours spread over two episodes. It seems like yesterday, when the naturally right handed golfing icon won a PGA event while still in college. It's an amazing thing, that Phil plays left-handed, which fits his somewhat unique personality, and his go-for-broke mentality that featured so many ups and downs during his career.

Jim Nantz said it, Augusta National Golf Club trademarked it: A tradition unlike any other. That tagline is property of the Masters Tournament and it’s a good one. The Masters is all that and more.

The irony is, Augusta National is the least traditional playing surface in major championship golf.

What? Yes, the Masters has been held there since 1934 but no site that has hosted multiple majors has been retouched, altered, tweaked and face-lifted more times than The National, as insiders call the course.

There should be no debate when it comes to making referees out of golf fans watching the tournament from their living rooms. Unless you have cameras recording every shot of every round of a tournament, then replays should not be used to determine rules infractions.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing last night as I tuned in for the final round of the LPGA’s first major of the year, the ANA Inspiration.

What was developing into an exciting finish and tightening leaderboard suddenly went totally off the rails as the final group, featuring tough competitors Lexi Thompson and Suzanne Peterson, putted out on the 12th hole at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.

The ANA Inspiration - the LPGA's first major of the 2017 season brings great anticipation drawing record crowds under the sunny blue skies, lush green fairways and snow capped mountains at the famous Mission Hills Country Club in Palm Springs, California. The greatest female golfers on the planet compete on one of golf's greatest stages.

Golf is considered to be a two target sport. While one target is either the fairway, green, or cup, the other target is always the ball. From tee to green, when the stroke is generating more power with a larger motion, keeping your eye on the ball makes sense. But why does it still seem necessary when we are only rolling the ball a relatively short distance on a manicured surface?

Modern times call for modern resources and the elimination of inconsistencies that are hard to remember.

As an instructor of the Rules of Golf for 12 years, I am used to the language, complexity, and sometimes “hidden meanings” that make the Rules of Golf challenging. I also have learned that much of the 34 Rules and their accompanying Decisions are not for every-day or casual golf, and most of us play by our own loosely defined set of rules anyhow.

This week the PGA TOUR arrives at Bay Hill, Arnold Palmer’s home course and the place he more or less brought into existence. Without Palmer, Bay Hill would just be another high-end Florida housing development with a good – not great – golf course. But Bay Hill is synonymous with Palmer and it shows up on the bucket lists of many golfers.